You could always send more than one email. Make sure you label them (e.g., Part 1 of 2).

I’ve read the comments on this page and I’m happy that I’m not the only one having issues with sending portfolio samples through Craig’s List.
I really need some good advice on shrinking file sizes please. Just my resume, designed on Illustrator, is 53KB, but once I add my 1 page portfolio with 2 examples on it of 200KB (I usually send less samples then they ask because I don’t think I can send more than 1 page), it doesn’t go through Craig’s List. Compressing them doesn’t help.

The jpegs I use are small, 72KB. I don’t know what to do. If anyone has good tips please help.

You can embed a flash movie within a pdf in order to enhance and reduce your portfolio. It is a great way to show small samples of your work and keep the file size down.

Along with a cover letter, the CV, and the sample project page, I was able to reduce several samples into a nice 2d/3d composite swf animation; This from an original 45 MB print sample down to a 17 MB web version and down to a scaled resampled CV version for a PDF as small as 2.6 MB.
It is possible to send decent portfolio samples that are compact, just not for Craigslist email servers.

For anyone reading this and has their portfolio only on facebook or something like that, GET IT OFF OF THERE!. There are plenty of online portfolio sites you can use. Many of them are free. I use the portfolio feature on deviantart.com. Carbonmade and Styleapple are a couple of others that come to mind. Use what works for you then give out that link and also post it on your facebook if you want. The bottom line is that you should have a link that will take prospective clients directly to you portfolio without any additional work.

I actually read a complaint from a Craigslist poster who was trying again to post a job but didn’t want anyone sending him links. He complained it was too much for him to click around the web all day. In my mind, he wasn’t very professional and I wouldn’t want to work with him anyway. He was a headache waiting to happen.

However, when a prospect asks for samples and I send a link, I explain the limits of replying through Craigslist as the reason for the link instead of attached JPEGs. A little education can go a long way to keeping you in the running for the gig.

There are plenty of places where people create online portfolios. Would you follow a link to one if it was provided in the email or reject that email as unqualified?

If an employer is truly interested in finding the right person, it shouldn’t be asking too much to follow a link provided in the return email, should it?

Some people are looking to hire a freelancer because they assume that they will be cheaper. While that’s probably true more often than not, you have to consider why its cheaper. Less experience, lower quality of work, and so on.

When you apply and point out that you’re a freelancer and a more serious one at that (as shown by you having a company and not simply make a few sites on the side with your spare time in your apartment), it could work for or against you.

It’s been my experience that people who insist on freelancers typically have tiny budgets and expect the world from you. They take advantage of your lack of business sense and when you break it down, you may make $5/hour after all of the work is done. I hear about these cases all the time.

If you promote yourself as a company and apply for a job on CL as a one, then someone in my position likely wouldn’t hire you, either. If I expect you to come into the office at least part-time but I know you and your partner are busy running your own company, I know that you probably won’t be here long.

So, I suggest that when you apply, tailor your reply to what the company is looking for and really show that you can do the job. That can go above and beyond the fact of you being a freelancer or in a company.

One comment:

Please note that some companies are owned by one or two freelancers such as myself and my partner. Please don’t hold the “company” association against us.

If you have a suggestion for how freelancers who also own a small company should respond to posts that require “freelancers”…please share your insights.

Many thanks.